Organizations such as on-line retailers, Internet service providers, search providers, financial institutions, universities, and other computing-intensive organizations often conduct computer operations from large scale computing facilities. Such computing facilities house and accommodate a large amount of server, network, and computer equipment to process, store, and exchange data as needed to carry out an organization's operations. Typically, a computer room of a computing facility includes many server racks. Each server rack, in turn, includes many servers and associated computer equipment.
Because a computing facility may contain a large number of servers, a large amount of electrical power may be required to operate the facility. In addition, the electrical power is distributed to a large number of locations spread throughout the computer room (e.g., many racks spaced from one another, and many servers in each rack). Usually, a facility receives a power feed at a relatively high voltage. This power feed is stepped down to a lower voltage (e.g., 110V). A network of cabling, bus bars, power connectors, and power distribution units, is used to deliver the power at the lower voltage to numerous specific components in the facility.
Computer systems typically include a number of components that generate waste heat. Such components include printed circuit boards, mass storage devices, power supplies, and processors. For example, some computers with multiple processors may generate 250 watts of waste heat. Some known computer systems include a plurality of such larger, multiple-processor computers that are configured into rack-mounted components, and then are subsequently positioned within a racking system. Some known racking systems include 40 such rack-mounted components and such racking systems will therefore generate as much as 10 kilowatts of waste heat. Moreover, some known data centers include a plurality of such racking systems. Some known data centers include methods and apparatus that facilitate waste heat removal from a plurality of racking systems, typically by circulating air through one or more of the rack systems.
Many data center includes numerous rack-mounted servers housed in a building, which provides protection operating equipment. Such buildings may require a substantial investment in the form of construction costs, maintenance costs, and/or leasing costs. In addition, substantial time and resources are typically required to design and build a data center (or expansion thereof), lay cables, install racks and cooling systems. Additional time and resources are typically needed to conduct inspections and obtain certifications and approvals, such as for electrical and HVAC systems.
Many data centers rely on forced air systems and air conditioning to maintain the temperatures and other environmental conditions in the data center within acceptable limits. The initial and ongoing costs of installing and operating these systems may add substantial cost and complexity to data center operations.
Many data centers include back-up components and systems to provide back-up power to servers in the event of a failure of components or systems in a primary power system. In some data centers, each primary power system may have its own back-up system that is fully redundant at all levels of the power system. For example, in a data center having multiple server rooms, each server room may have its own primary power system and back-up power system. The back-up system for each server room may have a switchboard, uninterruptible power supply (UPS), and floor power distribution unit (PDU) that mirrors a corresponding switchboard, uninterruptible power supply, and floor power distribution unit in the primary power system for that server room. Providing full redundancy of the primary power systems may, however, be very cost both in terms of capital costs (in that in may require a large number of expensive switchboard, UPSs, and PDUs, for example) and in terms of costs of operation and maintenance. In addition, with respect to the primary computer systems, special procedures may be required to switch components from the primary system to a back-up system, further increasing maintenance costs.
The amount of computing capacity needed for any given data center may change rapidly as business needs dictate. Most often, there is a need for increased computing capacity at a location. Initially providing computing capacity in a data center, or expanding the existing capacity of a data center (in the form of additional servers, for example), is resource-intensive and may take many months to effect.
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.